Ubuntu PHC kernel testers

[lxp]

I am looking for people who want to help me out with PHC kernel testing.

As you may have noticed, we currently don't have up-to-date kernels for all Ubuntu releases.
I'd like to improve the support, but I can't test all the different Ubuntu releases myself. Moreover it is not really practicable to test in VMs, because I can't verify PHC is really working.

So what do I expect from the tester is very few. They should use a paticular Ubuntu release and install updates regularly. They should stick to the PHC testing PPA, so they can install updates when I build them. When a new build is available they should install it, verify it is bootable and that PHC works. Then they should notify me so that I can copy the build to the stable PPA.
I would be glad if some people could help out.

Here is a list of Ubuntu releases and the current testers:

• 12.04 (precise): myself
• 11.10 (oneiric): pasdVn
• 11.04 (natty): -
• 10.10 (maverick): myself
• 10.04 (lucid): -

You can either PM me or post to this thread if you want to help out.

PS: If someone has an old 9.10 (karmic) it would be nice to verify if the lastest build in the testing PPA is working.

[pasdVn]

Just tried the latest kernel for oneiric from the testing PPA together with lio's updated patch. Works like a charm!

Code: Select all

tobias@Hugo:~$ uname -ri
3.0.0-13-generic-phc i386

Thank you for your work (and all other guys who keep this project alive)!

[lxp]

Thank you for testing!
Can I add you to the active testers for oneiric?
Is it possible for you to mail me the uname -rvm output if you got a new kernel installed? Just copy the line in a mail with subject "PHC kernel tested" or what you like most. So I know exactly, which kernel you tested.

[pasdVn]

Can I add you to the active testers for oneiric?

Yes, you can

Is it possible for you to mail me the uname -rvm output if you got a new kernel installed?

It is!

[maui_muc]

Hi lxp, I appreciate your initiative very much!

I am using Oneiric with your testing kernel as well. In the first place it caused some troubles. To load phc-intel I have to blacklist acpi_cpufreq and cpufreq_stats. If I remember correctly this wasn't necessary with Natty, Maverick and Lucid.

Wouldn't it be a good Idea also to put this package http://www.linux-phc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=267 into your PPA? This would make installation even more easy. What do you think.

Best, Stefan

[lxp]

I absolutely haven't used phc-intel a single time before, because I only own AMD machines, so I can't really comment on your problem.

But phc-k8 usually installs a modprobe hook to automatically load the phc-k8 module instead of the powernow-k8 module. It is located in the /etc/modprobe.d/phc-k8.conf file. You could check how it works with phc-intel.

One thing is sure, the cpufrequtils package (which is automatically installed with the phc kernel) tries to load an appropriate (default) kernel module (acpi-cpufreq or powernow-k8) at boot time, so the cpufrequtils package itself doesn't know anything about PHC.

Indeed it is strange that you can't unload the acpi-cpufreq module. Maybe pasdVn can comment on this.

Wouldn't it be a good Idea also to put this package http://www.linux-phc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=267 into your PPA? This would make installation even more easy. What do you think.

Sure, this would be a great idea. It is already on my todo list since I started to build -phc kernels. I know it shouldn't be too hard, but it hasn't very high priority on my todo list and I haven't got time to do it so far.
If I am going to build such packages I want them to be mostly according to the Debian and Ubuntu packaging policy. You might know that it is easy to build a deb Package for personal use, were you don't care about the packaging itself too much. But my experience showed that it definitively needs more time and effort to do the packaging well according to the policy.

Nevertheless I don't want to stop people from contributing to the community. I am sure if someone builds working packages (which are at least accepted by Launchpad) it wouldn't be much problem to publish them in the PHC PPA.

As we are all working in our free time on this project, I think mostly for the personal benefit. Nobody is always available and releases are a bit sporadic. If someone thinks he can help us out with something we are currently missing, the whole community would welcome it. You see it with the contributed phc-intel pack and it was similar in the beginning of my -phc kernels. I was unlucky with the available Ubuntu undervolt kernel builds, so I started to make my own and now I am part of the PHC team.
I hope nobody feels attacked, but I just wanted to say my opinion how the whole thing works here Moreover I hope we can welcome some new people who want to share their efforts. Open Source rules

[maui_muc]

In respect to my initial difficulties lets see what pasdVn or lio, who created the package, say.

You might know that it is easy to build a deb Package for personal use, were you don't care about the packaging itself too much.

Actually, I didn't. I thought this is something only a real Debian pro might do.

If someone thinks he can help us out with something we are currently missing, the whole community would welcome it.

I would love to contribute in some respect (aren't we all very busy). However, I am not a pro in administration stuff and have now idea how to build a DEB package. Nevertheless, I am a experienced programmer in Python, know a little Shell scripting, some scientific C++ stuff and a bit Fortran.
The difficulty for me is, how to get started. To be more specific: What would be necessary and what needs to be done to bring the phc-intel package into the PPA?

Best, Stefan

[pasdVn]

In respect to my initial difficulties lets see what pasdVn or lio, who created the package, say.

I didn't have any problems at all. Just build and installed the patch - straight forward - and it simply worked . I didn't have to blacklist anything.

Did you build the dabian package or use the traditional 'make install'?

[lio]

But phc-k8 usually installs a modprobe hook to automatically load the phc-k8 module instead of the powernow-k8 module. It is located in the /etc/modprobe.d/phc-k8.conf file. You could check how it works with phc-intel.

It's the same with phc-intel and works afaik flawless when using make install. But with newer versions of dkms, the hook isn't installed if no initial conf file exists to install the hook into and dkms won't generate the conf-file (in contrast to older versions of dkms). It's on my todo list to write a appropriate bug report for this. Simple workaround for now: Just touch /etc/modprobe.d/phc-intel.conf and install/reinstall the phc-intel-dkms package.

Dirk

[quantumlemur]

I'm running ubuntu 12.04, and I could help with testing on that, if you're interested.